Vegan Holidays Beyond the UnTurkey

Open sourcing the UnTurkey and taking the holidays back for vegans!

The Great Gluten Turkey

Posted December 20th, 2006 by s5

Serves 8-12.

Amazing, fun, incredible, and tasty, this creation will delight and satisfy any vegetarian wondering what to make for the centerpiece of a Thanksgiving or Christmas table. Like any good turkey, this one looks quite imposing with its golden and juicy-looking “skin” which, when cut, reveals white “meat” enclosing whatever kind of dressing you like. Accompanied by a tasty gravy and homemade cranberry sauce, no vegetarian will ever feel left out when the holidays roll around.

The skin for the turkey is made from “yuba,” a product made from the skin that forms when soy milk is heated. It can be purchased as fragile, dry sheets at Japanese food stores, or at certain Chinese markets in the freezer section. “Yuba” is a Japanese term and will not be understood at a Chinese grocery. The Chinese form, often labelled “bean curd sheet” or “bean curd skin,” is usually less fragile than the Japanese variety, easier to use and less expensive. To be sure you purchase the right product, avoid flat square sheets which, when closely examined, look like thick canvas (you can actually see the “weave”). Instead buy sheets that look heavily wrinkled. Sometimes they are sold as large (over 20″) circles that are folded and sold in small packets. They will be yellow in color. Some tofu cookbooks contain a recipe for making homemade yuba. The process is not hard and can be adopted when commercial yuba is not available.

Method

The “yuba” must be soaked and reconstituted to a soft, pliable texture before using. It is best to put individual sheets between wet towels until they turn soft and white in color. They are then ready to use.

Using either wheat flour or vital wheat gluten flour, make gluten according to the Homemade Gluten recipe. Roll it out into a rectangle approximately 15 inches long and 8 to 10 inches wide. Sprinkle with 1/3 cup yeast flavoring (unless you’ve added it in with your vital wheat gluten). Roll it up lengthwise. Spread out the cheesecloth and place the gluten roll in the middle. Wrap the sides of the cloth around the gluten roll first, then tie the ends together. It should be wrapped fairly loosely so that the gluten can expand a little while cooking but not so loose that it expands too much and becomes too soft and spongy in texture.

Place the roll in a large pot. Pour over it the gallon of water and the remaining 2/3 cup yeast flavoring. Cover, bring to a boil, turn down the heat, and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. This process can be done up to two days before serving.

Prepare the Great Gluten Dressing or stuffing of your choice. Remove the gluten roll from the stock, saving the stock for gravy. Untie and remove the cheesecloth. Unroll the “turkey” and fill it with the stuffing, or mound the stuffing on a large, greased baking sheet and place the gluten around it. Place the stuffed gluten on a large, greased baking sheet.

Reconstitute the yuba by soaking for five minutes in water in a flat, shallow dish, or between layers of wet towels. It will turn white and be pliable but will still be fragile. Cover the “turkey” with two to three layers of yuba. Melt the margarine and brush the entire “turkey” with some of it. Pour the wine into the remaining margarine: this will be used to baste the “turkey” while baking. If desired, two tablespoons of the yeast flavoring can be added to the margarine-wine mixture to give it an even more authentic flavor.

Place the “turkey” in a preheated 350 degree oven and bake for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, basting every 15 minutes with the wine-margarine mixture and the juices in the pan. If it browns too much, cover loosely with aluminum foil.

this is the only recipe i found online for making yuba at home::
Heat the soymilk in like a frying pan (so you get a large surface for the yuba to form on). Let is sit on low until the crust forms (takes a few minutes). Take a knife or fork and run it along the edges of the pan (to release the skin so it doesn’t stick when you’re trying to lift it). Get a long chopstick (the kind cooks use) and run it under the skin all the way over – then lift up carefully (the skin will hang over the chopstick) – let it stay up for a few secs to let excess soymilk drip off. Then lay it flat on a paper towel (well, not flat – it will be doubled over – but that’s okay). Repeat.on my stove it took about 10 minutes for a film to form on a standard size frying pan at slightly above 3/8ths heat. I ended up buying yuba from a market in town (Anzen Hiroshi if you live in Portland, Or, they’re AMAZING!) because the only sot milk i had at home was sweetened and that makes it taste a little weird. hope this helps!

Posted by brendangrubb on November 26th, 2008 at 10:58 pm | Permalink |

[…] LA Biodiesel Co-op Unturkey the 1st December 6, 2008, 8:31 pm Filed under: Ramblings, Vegan Food | Tags: food, unturkey, vegan Forthis year’s vegan Thanksgiving we made our own Unturkey. The company that made them (Now and Zen) shut down a couple of years back and our stockpile has run out; so we had to make one. You’re probably wondering why we just didn’t switch over to the dreaded Tofurky. We tried the Tofurkey which resembles a football more than a tasty holiday centerpiece, yuck, not something that I want to go through again! Anyhoo, back to the Unturkey. The byrd consists of four major parts: […]

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Get The Recipe

The original recipe from the person who created the UnTurkey. Click here!

The UnTurkey Story

A few lucky folks ate the last UnTurkeys for Thanksgiving dinner in 2006. By the time Christmas rolled around there was not an UnTurkey to be found. Now and Zen and the company that manufactured UnTurkeys, Green Options, had closed up shop without a word, leaving vegans everywhere with only one option for Christmas dinner: the dreaded Tofurky.

About This Site

We're just a couple of bereft vegans who mourn the loss of the UnTurkey and wish to brin gthe joy it gave back into the lives of other herbivores.